Kerry to conceded at 2

theski · Post by **theski** » 2004-11-03 11:12am

Just coming over the wire..... FOx.. ABC ,,NBC

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-11-03 11:13am

beat me to it! grrrrrr.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-11-03 11:14am

Fuck. Fuckity fuck.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Augustus · Post by **Augustus** » 2004-11-03 11:14am

Beat me by microseconds Theski. Good job

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-11-03 11:15am

I actually think this is the right move. He has no real chance, anymore, and could only tie even if he miraculously took all of the remaining states--in which case he would lose in the House.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-11-03 11:18am

Fucking hell.

4 more years with that cunt on top.

I despair.

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2004-11-03 11:20am

We should have voted for Cthulhu--At least then, the pain would be over much quicker....

theski · Post by **theski** » 2004-11-03 11:21am

Jon wrote:Fucking hell.

4 more years with that cunt on top.

I despair.

Gosh to bad you couldnt vote

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2004-11-03 11:22am

Look at it this way. Only 4 more years. In the grand scheme of things, thats a drop in the bucket. You can survive it easily enough.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-11-03 11:23am

Thank god, I don't think I could deal with another 3 weeks of lawyer-frenzy & legal talk as they try to decide the election.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-11-03 11:28am

aerius wrote:Thank god, I don't think I could deal with another 3 weeks of lawyer-frenzy & legal talk as they try to decide the election.

amen! I really don't think the country could have survived another dose of that.

on a side note the Dow is up 150 points this morning.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-11-03 11:29am

MSNBC Story

Bush wins second term as president
Kerry calls president to concede after hard-fought election
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 11:13 a.m. ET Nov. 3, 2004

President Bush won a second term in office on Wednesday after a fiercely fought U.S. presidential election.

NBC and the Associated Press reported that Sen. John Kerry called the president to concede the election.

Earlier, Kerry was reported to be weighing options, with running mate Sen. John Edwards counseling Kerry to fight on until all of Ohio's votes were counted — which might not happen for almost two weeks.

Yet, it wasn't clear whether the Kerry campaign was willing to hold out for weeks. On Wednesday morning, his top advisers met to discuss whether to fight on or concede. The aides planned at least one other session before taking their recommendation to the senator, according to several officials involved in the deliberations.

The Kerry campaign is "still examining" the results, spokesman David Wade said.

One senior Democrat familiar with the discussions said Edwards, a trial lawyer, wanted to make sure all options were explored and that Democrats pursued them as thoroughly as Republicans would if the positions were reversed.

Kerry’s campaign planned a statement by midday, his advisers said. Two of them, speaking on condition of anonymity, said concession seemed simply a matter of time after one last look for uncounted ballots that might close the 136,000-vote advantage Bush held in Ohio.

Card claims victory
Earlier, White House chief of staff Andrew Card showed up unexpectedly at a gathering of Bush supporters in Washington shortly before 6 a.m. ET to declare “the president of the United States has won the state of Ohio. He said the numbers added up to a "convincing Electoral College victory.”

Unlike the 2000 election, Bush carried the popular vote. With 98 percent of precincts reporting nationwide, the president was polling 51 percent to Kerry’s 48 percent.

Card added that Bush would make a statement later Wednesday. The president delayed a victory speech to “give Senator Kerry the respect of more time to reflect on the results of this election,” he said.

That was preceded by a statement from Edwards, who asserted that the Kerry campaign was conceding nothing. “We will fight for every vote,” he told cheering supporters in Boston. “We’ve waited four years for this victory. We can wait one more night.”

According to NBC News’ projections, Kerry won big states with large numbers of electoral votes, but Bush piled up victories in smaller states as well as the battlegrounds of Florida and Ohio to edge to 269 electoral votes, clinching at least a tie in the Electoral College.

Kerry had won 238 electoral votes, 32 short of the magic number, 270, the network projected. A handful of states were too close to call.

In addition, NBC News has decided not to project winners in those states until the Ohio situation is resolved, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw said Wednesday on the "Today" show.

Dispute over Ohio
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Bush led Kerry in Ohio by 51 percent to 49 percent. But the Kerry campaign was banking on provisional and absentee ballots, which were not included in that total, to reverse the margin. The combination could create a legal and political tangle reminiscent of the 36-day struggle over Florida four years ago.

Provisional ballots were issued to voters whose eligibility was challenged at the polls, a procedure the Republicans pursued avidly. In an eleventh-hour blow to Democrats, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens declined Tuesday to overturn an appeals court order clearing the way for vote challengers to be present at polling places in Ohio, where Democrats claimed that Republicans were seeking to discourage minority voters.

Bush led by about 136,000 votes. Card claimed that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had “informed us that this margin is insurmountable, even after provisional ballots are counted.”

There was no immediate comment from Blackwell, who had told reporters shortly after midnight that, with an estimated 175,000 provisional ballots having been cast — a number that also includes civilian and military ballots cast overseas — provisional ballots could not be counted before Nov. 13. Democrats feel the total is closer to 250,000 provisional ballots.

None had yet been assessed for their legitimacy. In 2000, when 100,000 provisional ballots were cast, about 90 percent were legitimate, Blackwell said. State law, meanwhile, allots 10 days for overseas ballots to trickle in.

“If it takes two hours, two days or two weeks, the result will be a good result that the voters of the state of Ohio will have confidence in,” Blackwell told reporters before Card spoke.

Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for Kerry in Ohio, said: “We think that is more than enough voters to win the state. Those votes have to be counted before we know who won the state.”

Meanwhile, there were also outstanding absentee ballots in at least 54 of the state’s 88 counties. And adding to the confusion is that Kerry can ask for a recount in any precinct — Ohio law, in fact, requires one if the final margin is one-quarter of 1 percentage point or less.

Election law specialists said either side could file lawsuits later Wednesday to try to get the best footing for evaluating and counting provisional ballots, and lawyers for Bush boarded a plane in Washington before dawn, bound for Ohio.

New Mexico, Iowa could clinch
NBC News projected that Bush would take Ohio and Florida, which decided the disputed 2000 election. He also won Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming and his home state, Texas.

Based on reported returns and data collected from voters as they left the polls, NBC News projected that Kerry would win California, the biggest prize of the night, with 55 electoral votes, as well as Pennsylvania. He also won Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and his home state, Massachusetts.

Returns were too close or too incomplete to support projecting a winner in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Wisconsin, reflecting pre-election polls that were essentially tied.

Kerry had narrow leads in several of those states, but Bush was ahead in Nevada, 51 percent to 48 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Card claimed that Bush was the victor there, as well.

The president had also pulled ahead in Iowa by about 15,600 votes, with 99 percent of precincts reporting. But as many as 60,000 more absentee ballots could still be outstanding, NBC’s Natalie Allen reported from Iowa City.

Meanwhile, several thousand votes will not be counted for as long as another day and a half after optical scanning machines broke down in Green County. The manufacturer of the devices was expected to supply new machines later Wednesday morning so those counties could finish their vote counts.

Nader a non-factor
Independent candidate Ralph Nader, whom many Democrats blamed for Al Gore’s Electoral College defeat to Bush in 2000, was a non-factor this time around. He was winning no more than 1 percent of the vote in a handful of states and had barely 385,000 votes nationwide.

Unusually large numbers of voters turned out in an election that was running much more smoothly than anticipated. Florida, the ugly stepchild of 2000, was largely a dream.

In the end, Ohio was the fulcrum, and exit polling data suggested that it was older voters and white evangelical Christians who clinched the deal for Bush. The president won 56 percent of the vote among voters ages 60 and older, and he took three-quarters of white evangelical voters, who made up 25 percent of the state’s electorate.

Bush appeared to benefit in Florida from the gratitude of residents hit hard by hurricanes last summer. Eighty-seven percent of Floridians said in exit polls that they approved of how the federal government responded, and 54 percent of those voters backed Bush.

Bush also won 54 percent of Florida’s white vote, offsetting Kerry’s 87 percent-to-12 percent victory among the much smaller black vote.

Kerry was banking on younger voters, many of whom were casting their first ballots. In both Ohio and Florida, first-time voters made up 13 percent of the electorate, and they went heavily for the challenger — by 59 percent to 40 percent in Florida, and by 56 percent to 44 percent in Ohio. But the overall percentage of younger voters was essentially unchanged from 2000, dampening their impact on the Democratic totals.
Contributing to this report were MSNBC's Alex Johnson; NBC’s David Gregory, Andrea Mitchell and Lisa Myers in Washington; Anne Thompson in Columbus, Ohio; Lester Holt in New York; Natalie Allen in Iowa City, Iowa; Josh Mankiewicz in Albuquerque, N.M.; Felix Schein in Boston; and The Associated Press.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6363692/

Huzzah, Bush!

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-11-03 11:29am

theski wrote:
Gosh to bad you couldnt vote

Tis indeed

But then having the most votes isn't how Bush became president anyway so it doesn't matter all that much eh

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-11-03 11:31am

Jon wrote:
theski wrote:
Gosh to bad you couldnt vote
Tis indeed But then having the most votes isn't how Bush became president anyway so it doesn't matter all that much eh

the last president to do that was Bush I. Well, Dubya did finally change that with 4 million more votes than Kerry.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » 2004-11-03 11:32am

Col. Crackpot wrote:
the last president to do that was Bush I. Well, Dubya did finally change that with 4 million more votes than Kerry.

Indeed, though I keep forgetting that I'm just some lowly brit thousands of miles away, this election is nothing to do with me, nothing that the President of the US does affects me

Augustus · Post by **Augustus** » 2004-11-03 11:35am

I think this is appropriate

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-11-03 11:37am

Goddamn mutherfuckin' sonnnabitch! Why the fuck is he conceeding, Bush still doesn't have what he needs to fuckin' win!

Now just watch as Kerry gets just enough votes that Bush doesn't get the 270 lead he needs.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-11-03 11:39am

LadyTevar wrote:Goddamn mutherfuckin' sonnnabitch! Why the fuck is he conceeding, Bush still doesn't have what he needs to fuckin' win!

Now just watch as Kerry gets just enough votes that Bush doesn't get the 270 lead he needs.

It's quite impossible for that to happen, now, thankyouverymuch.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-11-03 11:39am

Tech^salvager · Post by **Tech^salvager** » 2004-11-03 11:41am

I'm glad now that Bush is in.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-11-03 11:41am

LadyTevar wrote:Goddamn mutherfuckin' sonnnabitch! Why the fuck is he conceeding, Bush still doesn't have what he needs to fuckin' win!

Now just watch as Kerry gets just enough votes that Bush doesn't get the 270 lead he needs.

Bush has safe leads in Ohio, Nevada, Iowa and New Mexico, the last remaining uncontested states. It's almost mathamatically impossible for Kerry to get enough votes from mail ballots to pull of a win in any of those states.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-11-03 11:42am

D'oH! i meant un called states..or... you know what the fuck i mean.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-11-03 11:42am

I've just been wanting to say this:

FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!

Huge banner fixed -Beo

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-03 11:52am

Nathan F wrote:I've just been wanting to say this:

FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!

Hint: you fucked up

After you've waited so long, not previewing must itch no?

On that matter,wether he would have won won, we'll know in 11 days, what we DO know, is that he conceeded.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-11-03 11:56am

Ace Pace wrote:
Nathan F wrote:I've just been wanting to say this:

FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!
Hint: you fucked up
After you've waited so long, not previewing must itch no?

On that matter,wether he would have won won, we'll know in 11 days, what we DO know, is that he conceeded.

if you ignore the little issue of Dubya having 4 MILLION MORE VOTES than Kerry.